7/10
The consequences of revenge
1 February 2017
Very good movie that reminds you of the best work of Claude Chabrol (not that there is any intention to imitate Chabrol). The violence that starts the action has a hard edge at the beginning, then its contours become more ambiguous; as in real life, facts may be seen in more than one way, and their interpretation depends on one's previous knowledge, that changes with time. The unintended horrors of vengeance are clearly shown.

Brazilian director Marco Dutra does an excellent job, and action moves forward smoothly. In my opinion, the movie dwells a little too much (and a little unconvincingly) on the main character's psychology, which may reflect the usual problems of translating a novel (by Argentinian Sergio Bizzio, who also wrote the script) into a screenplay.

Excellent work by Argentinian Leonardo Sbaraglia and Brazilian Carolina Dieckmann, the rest of the cast at the same level. The movie is an Argentinian-Brazilian coproduction and the scenario is Montevideo. halfway between the two countries. The title The Silence of the Sky is an exact translation of the Portuguese original; in Argentina the movie was titled "Era el Cielo" (it was the sky). Perhaps a little is lost in translation here since the Portuguese "céu" and the Spanish "cielo" both mean "sky" but also mean "heaven."

You can catch another excellent movie by Dutra, Hard Labor (2011) in the rental services. There are several movies based on Bizzio's writing or scripted by him, among them "Un Amor" (2011) directed by Paula Hernández and "XXY" (2007) directed by Lucía Puenzo.
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